Occupational health

CPHR researchers are helping improve the health and wellbeing of New Zealand workers. We are assessing links between job stressors—such as night shift, chemical exposure, noise, stress, and strenuous or sedentary work—and heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. We are also identifying key industries and key carcinogens for which intervention would result in marked reductions in occupational cancer, and investigating the relationship between motor neuron disease and known or suspected occupational exposure. Other projects include: investigating the link between farming and increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, surveying solvent exposure and neuropsychological symptoms in vehicle spray painters, and investigating the occupational causes of asthma among saw mill workers and cleaners.

Finally, we are examining the associations between exposure to harmful agents such as asbestos, dioxin, and PCP, and mortality, cancer incidence, and other chronic health outcomes.